John T. Thompson

John Taliaferro Thompson was an American Army officer and firearms designer who developed the Thompson submachine gun and helped establish its early production.

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John Browning: An American firearms designer whose inventions shaped military and civilian small arms. Browning’s patents and mechanisms influenced the design environment in which Thompson pursued automatic weapons.
Thompson submachine gun: A family of American .45-caliber submachine guns developed by Auto-Ordnance and first produced in 1921. This is the weapon most directly associated with Thompson’s design program.
World War I: A global war fought from 1914 to 1918 between the Allied and Central Powers. Wartime combat exposed a need for a portable weapon with automatic fire.
Prohibition in the United States: The nationwide constitutional ban on the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages, in effect from 1920 to 1933. Gangsters’ use of the Thompson during Prohibition made it a prominent symbol of organized crime.
Thomas Fortune Ryan: An American financier who backed the Auto-Ordnance Corporation. Ryan’s funding enabled Thompson’s company to develop and manufacture the weapon.
Blowback operation: A firearm operating principle in which expanding gases push the cartridge case and bolt backward without a locked breech. The Thompson’s action uses a delayed form of blowback to control the heavy bolt.
Trench warfare: A form of combat in which opposing armies fight from fortified trenches and connected defenses. Thompson envisioned a compact automatic weapon for close-range fighting in trenches.
World War II: A global war fought from 1939 to 1945 between the Allied and Axis powers. The U.S. military adopted Thompson submachine guns extensively during the war.
Auto-Ordnance Corporation: An American company founded to develop and produce the Thompson submachine gun. Thompson organized this company to bring his firearm design into production.
Blish lock: A friction-based mechanism patented by John Bell Blish and used in early Thompson submachine guns. Thompson adopted Blish’s proposed locking principle in the weapon’s initial design.